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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25483987">Ringers of Faith</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Im_Chamsae/pseuds/Im_Chamsae'>Im_Chamsae</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Robin Soulmate AUs [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics), Nightwing (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Dick Grayson is Robin, Jason Todd is Robin, Platonic Soulmates, Sad Ending, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, soulmate rejection</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 02:14:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,178</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25483987</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Im_Chamsae/pseuds/Im_Chamsae</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, you can lose sight of things if you let your emotions overwhelm you.</p><p>Dick Grayson learns that the hard way when he forgets to check his soulmate ring in the heat of a moment. Maybe if he had, things would have been different between them.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dick Grayson &amp; Jason Todd</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Robin Soulmate AUs [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1774687</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>116</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Ringers of Faith</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Richard John Grayson &amp; Jason Peter Todd - Platonic Soulmates (Ring Identifying Mark).</p><p>AU idea was from a tumblr post I came across on Pinterest, I will attach it to the bottom. But obviously, I've changed it and didn't fully follow it.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ever since Richard John Grayson was born, he had a ring – a special ring. One that was so unique that only he had it, and one that connected him, and only him; to his lifelong soulmate.</p><p>For a long time, he was oblivious to its importance, probably because he had been a mere child and was too young to fully grasp or understand its true value. But when he was old enough, and finally ready, John and Mary Grayson were never happier to sit him down and talk to him about it.</p><p>And so Dick learned; he learnt that his ring was his soulmate mark, and whenever it changed colour, it indicated a change in the other’s emotion. And when Dick was to finally meet his soulmate – it would turn a bright pink, but even he knew that this was not to come for a while.</p><p>Initially they had been happy to tell their son about his ring mark when he had finally asked, but as time passed, the Graysons soon began to regret rushing in too soon. Particularly when they noticed how frequently their son’s ring changed colour, most regularly changing between the colours of red (anger), green (envy or even disgust, depending on the shade) and blue (sadness). Rarely did they ever see the ring yellow (happy), and it scared them.</p><p>Whoever their son was destined to be with, it was clear that this person was having a tough time wherever they were, and they knew that their son understood that too. They could see it on his face, the concern etched onto the young boy’s face whenever he spotted the change in colour again.</p><p>And concerned he was.</p><p>Dick often found himself worrying about his soulmate. Why were they always so angry and sad? What happened to them? Were they alright? Oh, how he wished he could have been there to do something for them. There was not a moment whilst growing up when he did not wonder about his soulmate.</p><p>But when he was twelve years old, it could be said that for a moment in time, he lost sight of things and his priorities had changed because it didn’t matter anymore to him, his parents were dead. Taken before his very eyes, leaving him an orphan.</p><p>Fate had been cruel.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>For the longest time since he’s had the ring on his finger, Jason Peter Todd had rarely seen it turn a colour other than yellow (happy). Now, whoever his soulmate was, they sure as hell was living a much better life than he was.</p><p>But during his eighth year of life, he had seen it turn blue (sadness) and occasionally red (anger). And for a long time, it didn’t seem to turn back to yellow (happy), and that worried him.</p><p>For a short period of time, he truly hoped that his soulmate was okay.</p><p>And they were, because soon, it was lit up at a bright yellow (happy) again, as if the brief period of sadness and anger had never happened in the first place.</p><p>Perhaps if he had been a little more perceptive, he would have realised this changed of colour coincided with the adoption of one Richard John Grayson as Bruce Wayne’s new ward.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>It was not longer after that when he soon found himself left alone in the world with his own father’s life being taken away from him. It angered and saddened him, but he had no time to mourn as he understood his reality that he needed to survive, even if it meant resorting to underhanded methods like stealing tires just to get by.</p><p>From a young age, Jason already understood that life just wasn’t fair and he truly hoped that he didn’t worry his soulmate too much – he bet it was probably going off at rapid pace, changing colours from all the emotions he was constantly going through but he also noticed that he wasn’t the only one. Especially more recently.</p><p>No, whoever his soulmate was, it appears that they too were going through an emotional phase as well.</p><p>As he curled himself up into a small ball at night to retain his body heat, Jason often found himself staring at his ring, how it was constantly changing colours but mostly remained at a shade of red (anger). A part of him couldn’t help but wonder if his soulmate was okay, or what had happened to invoke such a sudden change. After all, hadn’t they always been happy?</p><p> </p><p>On the other side of the Gotham city, inside Wayne Manor, Dick was done. He had enough of Bruce, and had finally decided to leave Gotham to forge his own path as hero.</p><p>And thus, the Teen Titans were born. </p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>It was not long after when he started to notice the little change in his ring. Or more specifically, how the ring had turned a pure white colour. It was admittedly a first, and a colour that he had never seen it turn before.</p><p>After a consultation with the local library and a good computer that actually worked, he soon came to understand that it meant that his soulmate was in love.</p><p>Love.</p><p>Romantic love.</p><p>With that one realisation, Jason finally understood that this bond they shared, one that was given to them by the universe – it was not a romantic one like he had initially assumed.</p><p>No, it was platonic.</p><p>And he was perfectly fine with that too because at least he knew that the fates had not completely abandoned him to fend for himself in this cruel world, that eventually he would come to meet someone who was destined to be there for him. Always.</p><p>And when they did meet, whenever they would, deep down, he really hoped that they could be friends.</p><p> </p><p>But once again, fate had not been kind.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>He would never had admitted it out loud, but a part of him admired Dick Grayson, the first Robin. He really respected him and very much looked up to the older teen. So needless to say, that when Bruce had mentioned that Dick would be dropping by, Jason was secretly ecstatic to meet his predecessor.</p><p>However, the feeling had not been mutual.</p><p>No, in fact, it had been far from it.</p><p>Dick Grayson had not been welcoming to the idea of a replacement in the slightest.</p><p>When he first set eyes on new boy dressed in a Robin costume, one that had been so similar to his own during his days as Bruce’s sidekick, using the very same name his mother had given to him as a child – it had infuriated him.</p><p>He probably should have held it in closer, or controlled his emotions a little better, after all, he was just a kid. One who was not much younger than himself, but the fact was, Dick couldn’t, and he hated that he had let his emotions get through – he hated that he had looked down on Jason Todd with a look of absolute disgust and detestation.</p><p>It wasn’t his fault, but he just couldn’t help it.</p><p>To see your legacy, one that you had created, be passed on without your permission like that; sure, he took on a new mantle – Nightwing, but he’d like to think that it had been his first. Surely, Bruce should have run it through him before giving it away, but no. Like always, the man hadn’t said a single word to him and he had to find out about a new Robin by himself.</p><p>Perhaps he should have said something to the kid, but with too many emotions overwhelming him at that instance in time, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He was just so irritated at Bruce at that point, so angry that he had turned his back on the kid without a word to confront the older man.</p><p>Maybe if he hadn’t been so caught up in his emotions, he would have seen it – the bright pink colour that his ring turned into, a colour that indicated he had met his soulmate at last.</p><p>But he hadn’t.</p><p> </p><p>However, Jason had.</p><p>And that rejection from Dick Grayson, his idol, his hero and now his soulmate had crushed him.</p><p>Seeing the look of repulsion on the older teen’s face, the look of mortification in his blue eyes as they stared down at him – he felt as though his heart had been ripped out of his body, and crushed to smithereens. This was not how he had ever imagined their first meeting to go, no, it was so much worst that he had ever imagined.</p><p>And the real kicker of it all, Jason was willing to bet that Dick didn’t even know that he was his soulmate.</p><p>He hadn’t seen the teen look down even once at his pink coloured ring, and by the time he had wordlessly turned to walk away from him, the colour had changed to blue (sadness). A real time representation of his most inner feelings at that point in time because that really was how he felt at that moment – hurt, wounded and betrayed.</p><p>He was meant to be the one person in the universe that would never leave him, his soulmate… but when Dick Grayson had deemed him the worst thing that he had ever set his eyes on, it was exactly what he had done.</p><p>He had abandoned him.</p><p>And he didn’t even know it because as Jason Todd lied in bed that night, drowning away in the depths of his sorrows, one Dick Grayson could not help wonder what had so suddenly upset his soulmate to turn his ring into the darkest shade of blue he had ever seen.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>For the longest time after that, his ring remained a dark shade of blue, and it worried him.</p><p>Sometimes he wished that he had met his soulmate already. Perhaps if he had, he’d like to think that he would have been able to help them through during this period of pain or whatever it was that was bothering them right now.</p><p>But at last, he couldn’t because he didn’t even know who, or where they were.</p><p>So, for the longest time, Dick was stuck feeling helpless, unable to curb that feeling of panic within the pit of stomach that something big was going to happen soon, something that wasn’t going to be good.</p><p>And then it had happened.</p><p>Out of the blue, on a day like no other, it had all suddenly changed when his ring finally turned black – the colour that indicated his soulmate was gone.</p><p>His soulmate was dead.</p><p>Taken from the world before they could even meet, and it had brought on an imminent wave of grief to the late teen. Just like how his parents had been whisked away from him as a child, it seems that death had done it again. Death had stolen away another person from his life, and once again, he was helpless to prevent it.</p><p>What was the point of becoming a hero in the first place if he couldn’t even protect the one person he was destined to be with?</p><p> </p><p>It would not be long after when he later learnt of Jason’s unfortunate demise, one that matched the exact time when his ring turned its empty shade of black.</p><p>And then, it all suddenly made sense to him.</p><p>Jason Todd had been his soulmate, and being the fool that he had been when they first met, he had practically walked away from the kid. From his soulmate.</p><p>It had been him to make the first step of denial towards their bond when he walked away, he had hurt him. He, himself was the sole cause of his soulmate’s prolonged period of sadness leading up to his death, and had never even realised it until now, when it was all too late.</p><p>As he stood there, watching them lower the teen’s fine polished coffin into the ground, Dick had never felt so much more ashamed of himself. </p><p>He did not deserve to wear this ring anymore, he couldn’t. Not when it only served as a brief reminder that he had failed to protect the one person in the entire universe he was supposed to love, and even that he had managed to fail at. </p><p>No, he could not stand to wear it anymore, especially when all it did was bring him grief and pain.</p><p>So, doing the most logically thing he could think of in his temporary unstable state of grief, Dick Grayson removed the ring from his hand for the first time in his life, and locked it away in a little box that he kept at the top of his bookshelf, long tucked away to be forgotten.</p><p> </p><p>And forgotten it was.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Perhaps if he had kept it on his finger like he was supposed to, Dick Grayson would have noticed it turn from its stagnant black colour to one of bright red; two years after Jason Todd was supposedly killed.</p><p>But at last, life just didn’t work that way, now did it?</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I have a sudden desire to write more platonic soulmate AUs.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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